Context-based service delivery

ABSTRACT

A system for delivering a context-based service to a connected device is provided. The system includes context information for a user of the connected device, a web service, and a service delivery system. The service delivery system receives context information and information from the web service. The service delivery system combines the context information and the information from the web service to create customized information for the user. The customized information is then delivered to the user&#39;s connected device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/617,709, entitled “System and Method for Identifying and ManagingSocial Circles”, filed on Dec. 28, 2006, by Wing K. Lee, which isincorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Any device that is capable of connecting to a network, such as atelecommunications network or the Internet, will be referred to hereinas a connected device. Connected devices might includetelecommunications devices such as mobile telephones and personaldigital assistants, general purpose computing devices such as desktopcomputers and portable computers, and special purpose computing devicessuch as set-top boxes. Connected devices that are easily portable willbe referred to herein as mobile devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one embodiment, a system for delivering a context-basedservice to a connected device is provided. The system includes contextinformation for a user of the connected device, a web service, and aservice delivery system. The service delivery system receives contextinformation and information from a telecommunications provider's networkintelligence and over the Internet via web services. Thetelecommunications provider aggregates and makes sense of the differentstreams of information and uses the service delivery system to createcustomized alerts, contextually relevant information, and evenactionable choices information for the user's benefit, delivered to theuser's connected device.

In another embodiment, a method is provided for delivering context-basedinformation to a connected device. The method includes a user of theconnected device specifying a first preference, and a service deliverysystem monitoring one or more activities of the user. The servicedelivery system infers a second preference of the user based on themonitored activities. The service delivery system receives informationfrom a web service. The method includes the service delivery systemcombining the first preference, the second preference, and theinformation from the web service to create context-based information.The service delivery system delivers the context-based information tothe user's connected device.

These and other features and advantages will be more clearly understoodfrom the following detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following briefdescription, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings anddetailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent likeparts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for delivering context-basedservices according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for delivering context-basedinformation according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary general-purpose computer system suitablefor implementing the several embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

It should be understood at the outset that although an illustrativeimplementation of one or more embodiments are provided below, thedisclosed systems and/or methods may be implemented using any number oftechniques, whether currently known or in existence. The disclosureshould in no way be limited to the illustrative implementations,drawings, and techniques illustrated below, including the exemplarydesigns and implementations illustrated and described herein, but may bemodified within the scope of the appended claims along with their fullscope of equivalents.

In an embodiment, an Internet or other network capable connected devicecan proactively provide its user with services based on informationassimilated from a plurality of sources. The information sources mightinclude personal preferences specified by the user, the user's currentlocation, the current time, the user's past telecommunications andInternet browsing activities, and the user's social circle. Theseinformation sources might be referred to collectively as the user'scontext. Information obtained through existing web services might becombined with context-based information to further enhance the servicesthat can be delivered to the user via the connected device.

The personal preferences specified by the user might include typicalpreferences the user provides to the telecommunications provider, suchas operating and display preferences, favorites, and contacts. Thepersonal preferences might also include preferences provided to one ormore third parties, such as travel-related web sites. For example, theuser might have an account with a company that expedites travelarrangements via the World Wide Web. The user might provide such acompany with a set of travel-related preferences such as a preferredairline, a preferred class or location for airline seating, preferencesfor hotels and rental cars, and other travel-related preferences. One ofskill in the art will recognize other third parties to which the usermight provide, preference information. The user might allow thetelecommunications provider to have access to the preference informationprovided to one or more third parties, or otherwise allow businesses toshare the user's information for the purposes disclosed herein.

It is well known in the art that the activities engaged in by aconnected device user can be monitored and analyzed by the provider oftelecommunications services to the device. For example, the providermight record and analyze the text messages and other communications sentto and from the user and the web sites visited by the user. From thisinformation, the telecommunications provider might glean additionalinformation about the user's preferences.

The preferences specified by the user and the preferences determined bythe telecommunications provider through the monitoring of the user'sactivities might be referred to collectively as the user's profile. Insome cases, the real-time information determined by thetelecommunications provider might identify conflicts with the user'sdesires. For example, the user might have stated a preference to fly outon a specific flight, but the telecommunications provider might noticethat, given the user's location and real-time traffic informationobtained via web services and the time of day relative to departuretime, the user would not be able to make that flight. Thetelecommunications provider might proactively contact the user viaappropriate electronic means to offer the user alternative flights basedon information obtained via web services. The telecommunicationsprovider might also make appropriate travel arrangements by brokeringthe user's identity and profile information to travel agencies based onthe user's input.

The user's social circle includes, but is not limited to, the set ofcontacts with whom the user communicates via the connected device. Thesocial circle might originally be specified by the user and might laterbe automatically modified by the telecommunications provider based onthe user's actual usage patterns. Alternatively, the social circle mightbe entirely inferred by the telecommunications provider or might firstbe inferred by the telecommunications provider and then modified by theuser.

The usage patterns might be based on the persons whom the user calls,the persons to whom the user sends Short Message Service (SMS) messages,the persons to whom the user sends pager messages, the persons to whomthe user sends instant messages, and the persons with whom the usercommunicates via two-way radio. The social circle might includereferences to the degrees of separation of the user from the contacts.For example, contacts with whom the user regularly communicates might beconsidered to have one degree of separation from the user. Persons withwhom those contacts communicate but who do not communicate with the usermight be considered to have two degrees of separation from the user, andso on. Further information related to social circles can be found inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/617,709, entitled “System and Methodfor Identifying and Managing Social Circles”, filed on Dec. 28, 2006, byWing K. Lee, which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

The user's current location might be determined by a global positioningsystem (GPS) or other positioning system installed in the connecteddevice. Time information might also be obtained from the connecteddevice or might be obtained from the telecommunications providersclocks.

The user's social circle and the user's current location might bereferred to collectively as the user's presence. The profile, thepresence, and the current time might be referred to collectively as theuser's context. The context might be constantly updated by changes intime or the user's location. The context might also change based on theuser's telecommunications and web browsing activities or based onmodifications deliberately made by the user, such as changing apreference.

It is well known in the art that services known as web services areavailable via the World Wide Web. For example, travel information,police reports, weather reports, traffic reports, and similarinformation might be available as web services. Other types ofinformation that might be available through web services, such as stockquotes and the status of auction bids, will be familiar to one of skillin the art.

In an embodiment, a telecommunications provider can gather contextinformation about a particular customer and information obtained throughone or more web services. The two information sources can then beautomatically combined to provide the customer with highly customizedinformation that the telecommunications provider can send in anautomated manner to the customers connected device when requested by thecustomer. Automated systems managed by the telecommunications providermight also proactively send customized information to the customerwithout a request from the customer when an analysis of the informationindicates that the information might be helpful to the customer. Thecustomer might use the connected device to respond to the informationreceived in this manner and the automated systems managed by thetelecommunications provider might take further actions based on theresponse.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a system 10 that can delivercontext-based services. A context 20 for a telecommunications customermight include the customer's profile, the customer's presence, and thecurrent time, as described above. One or more web services 30 might alsobe available. Information related to the context 20 and the web services30 can be provided to an automated, context-based service deliverysystem 40 that may be managed, controlled, or otherwise overseen by atelecommunications provider, for example. The service delivery system 40can assimilate and analyze the context information and the web servicesinformation to create customized information that can reactively orproactively be provided to a connected device 50 used by the customer.The service delivery system 40 might also be able to offer the customeroptions for future actions based on the customized information that hasbeen generated. When the customer selects one of the options, theservice delivery system 40 might be able to take appropriate actionsbased on the customer's choices.

To illustrate some of the services the context-based service deliverysystem 40 might provide, an example will be given of a user of theconnected device 50 driving to an airport to take a flight. Since theuser in this example is traveling, the connected device 50 will beassumed to be a mobile device and will be referred to in this example asthe mobile device 50. However, it should be understood that, in otherscenarios, the connected device 50 could be a non-portable device suchas a general purpose computer, a special purpose computing device (suchas a set-top box), or some other type of connected device.

Based on information that the user has provided, the service deliverysystem 40 might be aware of the user's flight number, flight time, andother information related to the flight. The user might have providedthe flight information directly to the telecommunications provider or toa travel agency or a travel-related web site to which thetelecommunications provider has access via federating the user'sidentity or the service delivery system 40 might gain access to thisinformation in another manner. A positioning system, such as a GPS, inthe user's mobile device 50 may be able to provide the service deliverysystem 40 with the user's current location. The service delivery system40 might also be aware of the current time.

In addition, the service delivery system 40 might have access to one ormore web services 30 that are relevant to the user's situation. Forexample, the service delivery system 40 might have access to one or moreweb services 30 that could provide traffic information related to theroute that the user is taking to the airport. The service deliverysystem 40 might also have access to one or more web services 30 thatprovide police reports, weather reports, and other reports that couldhave an impact on the user's drive to the airport. In addition, theservice delivery system 40 might have access to one or moretravel-related web services 30 that could provide information about theflight the user intends to take, other flights that might be availableto the user, hotel information, rental car information, and otherinformation that might be relevant to the user's trip.

Using the user's current location, the location of the airport, thecurrent time, the time of the user's flight, the speed limit on the roadon which the user is driving, and other pertinent information, theservice delivery system 40 might automatically calculate whether theuser will arrive at the airport in time for the flight. The servicedelivery system 40 might also take real-time traffic information androad conditions into account when determining the time needed for theuser to arrive at the airport. For example, by consulting atraffic-related web service 30, the service delivery system 40 mightdetermine that the user is approaching an area of heavy traffic orsevere weather conditions that will prevent the user from reaching theairport in time even though the user would reach the airport in time ifthe traffic were flowing freely.

When the service delivery system 40 determines that the user is unlikelyto arrive at the airport in time for the flight, the service deliverysystem 40 can send a message to the user's mobile device 50 informingthe user of that fact and offering the user one or more options. Forexample, in the case where heavy traffic on the user's current routewill prevent the user from reaching the airport in time, the servicedelivery system 40 might send a message suggesting an alternate routethat might allow the user to reach the airport in a timely manner.

If the service delivery system 40 determines that the user will notreach the airport in time for the flight regardless of the route, theservice delivery system 40 might provide the user with suggestions foralternative flights. That is, the service delivery system 40 might takeinto account flight information retrieved from a travel-related webservice 30, such as the availability of later flights to the user'sdestination or nearby destinations. The service delivery system 40 mightalso take into account the user's preferences for airlines, seatingclass and location, and other flight-related preferences explicitlystated by the user or gleaned from the user's past activities. Combiningthese sources of information, the service delivery system 40 mightautomatically determine one or more flights that the user might wish totake instead of the flight that is likely to be missed. The servicedelivery system 40 might then automatically send a message to the user'smobile device 50 listing the options for alternative flights.

The user might then use the mobile device 50 to select one of theoptions presented by the service delivery system 40. Upon the selectionof an option by the user, the service delivery system 40 mightautomatically communicate with the travel-related web service 30 tocancel the user's reservation on the previously scheduled flight andmake a reservation for the user on the selected flight. If rental carreservations, hotel reservations, or other travel-related arrangementsalso needed to be modified due to the change in the flight, the servicedelivery system 40 might automatically communicate with thetravel-related web service 30 to do so. The service delivery system 40might then automatically send a confirmation of the change in travelplans to the user's mobile device 50.

Continuing this example, the service delivery system 40 might alsoautomatically take the user's social circle into account whenconsidering options to present to the user. For example, the servicedelivery system 40 might be aware of the current location and travelplans of one or more members of the user's social circle. It mighthappen that a member of the user's social circle is scheduled to be onone of the flights that the service delivery system 40 is listing as analternative flight for the user, or a member of the user's social circlemight be in the city to which the user is flying, or some othercoincidence might occur that could cause the user and the member of thesocial circle to be in the same location at the same time. The awarenessby the service delivery system 40 of the user's travel plans and thetravel plans of the member of the social circle could allow the servicedelivery system 40 to notice such a coincidence and make the user awareof the coincidence. The user might then make travel arrangements thattake the presence of the member of the social circle into account.

In a related example, the service delivery system 40 might provide theuser with suggestions on items of interest in the destination city.Members of the user's social circle who live in or have visited the citymight have previously provided the service delivery system 40 withrecommendations for hotels, restaurants, activities, and other items ofinterest in the city. Alternatively, the service delivery system 40might automatically infer such recommendations based on its monitoringof the activities of the members of the social circle while in the city.For example, the service delivery system 40 might use GPS-derivedlocation information to determine that a member of the user's socialcircle spends a great deal of time at a particular location. Usinginformation obtained from one or more web services 30, the servicedelivery system 40 might be able to determine that that location is arestaurant and might therefore recommend that restaurant to the user.

Since the members of the user's social circle are likely to have tastesthat are similar to those of the user, the user might be inclined toplace more trust in such recommendations than in recommendations fromother sources. The service delivery system 40 might automatically andproactively send such recommendations to the user's mobile device 50upon learning the user's travel plans or upon the user's arrival at thedestination. Alternatively, the user might use the mobile device 50 torequest such recommendations from the service delivery system 40.

The above examples are merely intended to illustrate several use casesfor the service delivery system 40 and should not be considered the onlysituations in which the service delivery system 40 could be employed.One of skill in the art will recognize other ways in which the servicedelivery system 40 might use context information 20 and one or more webservices 30 to provide context-based services to a connected deviceuser.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 100 for delivering context-based informationto a connected device. In block 110, a user of the connected devicespecifies one or more preferences. In block 120, a service deliverysystem managed by a telecommunications provider monitors the activitiesof the user. In block 130, the service delivery system infers one ormore of the user's preferences based on the monitored activities. Inblock 140, the service delivery system receives information from one ormore web services. In block 150, the service delivery system combinesthe preferences and the information from the web services to create thecontext-based information. In block 160, the service delivery systemdelivers the context-based information to the user. The service deliverysystem might also take actions based on the context-based information oron the user's responses to the context-based information.

The system described above may be implemented on any general-purposecomputer with sufficient processing power, memory resources, and networkthroughput capability to handle the necessary workload placed upon it.FIG. 3 illustrates a typical, general-purpose computer system suitablefor implementing one or more embodiments disclosed herein. The computersystem 1300 includes a processor 1332 (which may be referred to as acentral processor unit or CPU) that is in communication with memorydevices including secondary storage 1338, read only memory (ROM) 1336,random access memory (RAM) 1334, input/output (I/O) devices 1340, andnetwork connectivity devices 1312. The processor 1332 may be implementedas one or more CPU chips.

The secondary storage 1338 is typically comprised of one or more diskdrives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data andas an over-flow data storage device if RAM 1334 is not large enough tohold all working data. Secondary storage 1338 may be used to storeprograms that are loaded into RAM 1334 when such programs are selectedfor execution. The ROM 1336 is used to store instructions and perhapsdata that are read during program execution. ROM 1336 is a non-volatilememory device that typically has a small memory capacity relative to thelarger memory capacity of secondary storage. The RAM 1334 is used tostore volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to bothROM 1336 and RAM 1334 is typically faster than to secondary storage1338.

I/O devices 1340 may include printers, video monitors, liquid crystaldisplays (LCDs), touch screen displays, keyboards, keypads, switches,dials, mice, track balls, voice recognizers, card readers, paper tapereaders, or other well-known input devices.

The network connectivity devices 1312 may take the form of modems, modembanks, ethernet cards, universal serial bus (USB) interface cards,serial interfaces, token ring cards, fiber distributed data interface(FDDI) cards, wireless local area network (WLAN) cards, radiotransceiver cards such as code division multiple access (CDMA) and/orglobal system for mobile communications (GSM) radio transceiver cards,and other well-known network devices. These network connectivity devices1312 may enable the processor 1332 to communicate with the Internet orone or more intranets. With such a network connection, it iscontemplated that the processor 1332 might receive information from anetwork or might output information to a network in the course ofperforming the above-described method steps.

Such information, which may include data or instructions to be executedusing processor 1332 for example, may be received from and outputted tothe network, for example, in the form of a computer data baseband signalor signal embodied in a carrier wave. The baseband signal or signalembodied in the carrier wave generated by the network connectivitydevices 1312 may propagate in or on the surface of electricalconductors, in coaxial cables, in waveguides, in optical media, forexample optical fiber, or in the air or free space. The informationcontained in the baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrier wavemay be ordered according to different sequences, as may be desirable foreither processing or generating the information or transmitting orreceiving the information. The baseband signal or signal embedded in thecarrier wave, or other types of signals currently used or hereafterdeveloped, referred to herein as the transmission medium, may begenerated according to several methods well known to one skilled in theart.

The processor 1332 executes instructions, codes, computer programs, orscripts that it accesses from hard disk, floppy disk, optical disk(these various disk-based systems may all be considered secondarystorage 1338), ROM 1336, RAM 1334, or the network connectivity devices1312.

While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure,it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may beembodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spiritor scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is notto be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified withinthe scope of the appended claims along with their full scope ofequivalents. For example, the various elements or components may becombined or integrated in another system or certain features may beomitted, or not implemented.

Also, techniques, systems, subsystems and methods described andillustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may becombined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, ormethods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Other items shown or discussed as directly coupled or communicating witheach other may be coupled through some interface or device, such thatthe items may no longer be considered directly coupled to each other butmay still be indirectly coupled and in communication, whetherelectrically, mechanically, or otherwise with one another. Otherexamples of changes, substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable byone skilled in the art and could be made without departing from thespirit and scope disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for delivering context-based informationto a connected device, comprising: receiving context information for auser of a connected device by a service delivery system, wherein thecontext information for the user includes preferences of the user,information on individuals in the user's social circle, and a locationof the user, wherein the social circle comprises a set of contactsinferred by a telecommunications provider based on whom the usercommunicates via the connected device; receiving current plans of theuser relating to a destination by the service delivery system; combiningthe context information for the user and the current plans of the userto identify a recommendation from one or more recommendations of amember of the user's social circle, wherein the recommendation is for anitem of interest related to the current plans of the user, wherein theidentified recommendation is inferred by the service delivery systembased on monitoring activities of at least one contact in the user'ssocial circle in the destination, and wherein the identifiedrecommendation is inferred by the service delivery system based on alocation of the monitored activities in the destination in combinationwith information obtained from one or more web services related to thelocation of the monitored activities in the destination; and proactivelysending the recommendation to the user's connected device by the servicedelivery system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the current plans ofthe user are travel-related plans.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein therecommendation is for an item of interest in the destination, andwherein the destination is a destination city.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the service delivery system proactively sends the recommendationto the user's connected device upon learning of the user's travel plans.5. The method of claim 3, wherein the service delivery systemproactively sends the recommendation to the user's connected device uponthe user's arrival at the destination city.